That editorâ€™s credentials donâ€™t indicate that a lot of hard-hitting investigative journalism was in the plan. In a droll resume rundown, the Timesâ€™ Richard Perez-Pena writes: â€œThe new editorâ€¦is Annie Gilbar, who has been the host of a program on the Home Shopping Network. She is a former editor of InStyle magazine and has written or co-written a number of advice books, like â€˜Wedding Sanity Savers.â€™â€

The astounding thing is that Hiller apparently didnâ€™t tell LA Times editor Russ Stanton about any of these plans. The publication currently named Los Angeles Times Magazine was going to hit the street in late summer or early fall with no oversight from the paperâ€™s editorial staff, despite carrying the weight of the paperâ€™s reputation and credibility.

Equally amazing is that the plans had moved along this far without Stantonâ€™s knowledge. According to the Times report, Hiller had already hired a new editor, art director and photo editor. Assuming that the previous staff of the magazine was reporting somehow through the LA Times editorial operation, it seems incredible that those changes could be made under the radar.

This puts Russ Stanton in a tough position, of course. The New York Times story, if true, is a public humiliation, the kind of revelation that could prompt Stantonâ€™s resignation. But Stantonâ€™s only been in his job for four months, and heâ€™s the fourth LA Times editor in the last three years. Another resignation at the top level would send staff morale into the tank.

We wonâ€™t even speculate about what Hiller was thinking.

Washington Post columnist Harold Myerson has a withering piece about Sam Zell, likening the Tribune Co. CEO to the union activist who tried to blow up the LA Times offices nearly a century ago. â€œAt the rate he’s going, [Zell is] on his way to accomplishing a feat that [the bomber] didn’t even contemplate: destroying the L.A. Times,â€ he writes. Describing Zell as â€œa visiting Visigoth, whose civic influence is about as positive as that of the Crips, the Bloods and the Mexican mafia,â€ Myerson trashes Zellâ€™s pronouncements last week that journalists would increasingly be measured on the volume of their output, noting that under those metrics, the Postâ€™s Pulitzer-winner reporters would find their heads on the chopping block.